The scenes involving Banner in Brazil are well-conceived, although when he accidentally contaminates a bottled soft drink with his blood, the movie doesn’t really deal with the consequences when the drink is consumed in the US. The contamination provides General Ross with his clue to Banner’s whereabouts, and Army troops blast the hell out of the City of God; all through the movie, the general deploys his firepower so recklessly that you wonder if he has a superior, and if he ever has to account for the dozens, hundreds, thousands, who die while his guys are blasting at the Hulk with absolutely no effect.
Enter Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), a Marine General Ross recruits because he’s meaner and deadlier than anyone else. Blonsky leads the chase in Rio. Later, Banner’s research associate Dr Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) is forced to inject Blonsky with a little Hulkie-juice, setting up a titanic rooftop battle in Harlem between Hulk and Blonsky. And this battle, as I have suggested, pounds away relentlessly, taking as its first victim our patience. Iron Man, the much better spiritual partner of this film, also ended with a showdown between an original and a copycat, but it involved two opponents who knew who they were and why they were fighting. When you get down to it, as a fictional creature, the Incredible Hulk is as limited as a bad drunk. He may be fun to be around when he’s sober, but when he drinks too much, you just feel sorry for the guy.
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